1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image retrieval apparatus capable of printing a mark sheet for retrieval.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, there are an increasing number of offices that use document filing apparatuses, in which in order to preserve and retrieve a large amount of documents, documents are read and preserved on an magneto-optical disk or the like. In most of such document filing apparatuses, for example, an index representing the contents of the document information is added to the document information, and the corresponding document is retrieved using the index.
In order to facilitate assignment of an index when preserving/retrieving document information, document filing apparatuses have been proposed, in which a mark sheet, for marking index information necessary when preserving/retrieving a document, is used.
Document filing apparatuses have also been proposed, in which, in order to easily recall the index in a retrieval operation, retrieval is performed using an index image representing the index. In some of these apparatuses, mark sheets are also used.
However, in a system in which index images are printed on at least one mark sheet and the user checks a mark for a desired index image, if the format of the mark sheet is fixed, some users may feel it is difficult to find a desired index image because too many index images are present on the format. Other users may feel that index images are too small and difficult to observe. Others may want to select an index image for retrieval on a single mark sheet.
The above-described problems arise because a mark sheet having a format desired by the user is absent.